Recent developments in a number of different digital technologies have greatly increased the need to transfer large amounts of data from one device to another or across a network to another system. Technological developments permit digitization and compression of large amounts of voice, video, imaging, and data information, which may be rapidly transmitted from computers and other digital equipment to other devices within the network. Computers have faster central processing units and substantially increased memory capabilities, which have increased the demand for devices that can more quickly transfer larger amounts of data.
Increasingly, these uses have migrated to portable devices. Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs and to improve portability and convenience. The increase in processing power in mobile devices such as cellular telephones has led to an increase in demands on wireless network transmission systems. Thus, increasing numbers of portable devices compete for scarce over-the-air resources. Mobility, environmental obstructions, and interfering sources (e.g., transmit collisions between wireless communication devices) can make it difficult to successfully communicate with another node in a local access network or radio access network. Channel quality can rapidly fade or be impacted with a dynamically changing signal-to-noise ratio that challenges successful communication.